There was a man in silky red robes crouching in the area which had just been decimated by the attack from the green swallow. There were two swords at his right hip sheathed in a black scabbard that had scarlet clouds engraved on them. He had deep black hair that was tied in a half bun man ponytail. He looked like someone in his late thirties. He had a medium build and scarlet red pupils and pale white skin that seemed it had never seen the sun in a millennium.

He grabbed a handful of sand at the area where the Ao yin bone saber had just fallen. He then let slip the sand in between his fingers closely scrutinizing it before he dusted the sand off his hands.

“Dong Yanlin you silly boy. You not only lost my leopard storage pouch but you couldn’t even keep master’s Ao Yin’s saber despite breaking the first seal. Some easy score this was. With you dead, I’m the one who will have to get an earful from him even more than usual since off late he has been in a sour mood from not having enough subjects for his spirit refinement experiments.

I don’t even know why master, the man known as the bloodless refiner would spoil you this much. Always a handful and causing nos small amount of trouble that I’m left cleaning up. I can no longer track the pouch as the trace locator array seems to have been dismantled, and the Ao Yin blood droplet I expected to help me locate the saber stopped working. Either the weapon was completely destroyed and no trace was left behind or it has already been sealed. For my sake, I hope it’s the latter. But how do I track the perpetrators judging from this level of attack it should have been made by someone at the peak stage of the core formation realm almost half-step into the palace realm. I should be able to handle them easily as long as there are no surprises.” The red-robed man silently thought to himself before he rose and started levitating from the ground. This was a clear sign that the man was someone at the palace stage.

Cultivators get flight capabilities when they reach the palace realm. Before that, they can only use spirit beasts or specialized flying artifacts such as flying ferries. As for flying swords, unlike ferries, can only be used by someone at the palace realm. Most experts who have only broken through to this stage prefer to use flying swords as opposed to flying without them. The advantage of using the former is that the flying swords are engraved with formation arrays that aid in boosting their speed. The better crafted the sword the greater the boost. It’s only at the later stages of the palace realm that most cultivators are confident in their speed that they don’t have to use things such as flying swords.

The young man flying up scrunched up his face as he started sniffing the air before a small smile formed on his face.

“This dense qi mmh it seems like someone used the primal lotus dew and luckily for me there are a few traces left for me to follow the general direction in which they went,” said the red-robed man as he unsheathed one of the two long swords attached to his waist. It was deep red in color. He placed it beneath his feet and flew off in the direction Haishi had flown off to. A red streak could be seen flying rapidly through the air.

…………………………………………….

Within the cultivation order court grounds, Yang Qing and company could be seen making their way down an alley filled with different kinds of buildings neatly arranged and spaced on both sides of the alley.

This alley was still within the same compound as the Cultivation order courts. The compound was partitioned into different zones sparsely spread out. The courts were centrally located within the grounds. Certain zones were off-limits to the public such as the area where carriages were stored and special stable grounds for the spirit beasts. But certain zones were open to the public such as where Yang Qing was headed. The area was filled with buildings that housed different things. There were restaurants, inns, pavilions, and courtyards available for rent. This area was created to cater to the needs of the parties that would be having their cases heard and deliberated. Since the use of teleportation arrays was strictly forbidden within the Order grounds unless special permission is given, traveling back and forth to the Order becomes rather tedious and strenuous to those parties especially those with weaker cultivation whose sect or family grounds were quite a distance from the court grounds. There was therefore a need to create places where cultivators could rest especially those whose cases would last more than a day. To help with this the Order allowed different businesses that would cater to those needs to be created within its grounds. The services were to be charged at an affordable rate so those parties could use them at their discretion. 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘭．𝘦𝘵

Those businesses blossomed and soon became not only popular with the cultivators who had cases but even the staff of the Order became regulars at them. Yang Qing was leading Cheng Yuan and the rest to one of his favorite spots, the thousand flavors restaurant. The restaurant had four stories and was made completely of red starlight wood. This wood was famous for being sturdy and it also had an ambient and inviting effect. It made one feel as if they were hurdling with a group of friends around a campfire enjoying laughs and a piping hot meal. Most of the young staff of the Order were frequenters of this place because of that effect. It was for that reason that Yang Qing decided to bring Cheng Yuan who was a bundle of nerves. The effect of the wood would help him loosen up a bit.

They soon stopped at the entrance of this fine establishment as one of the servants hurriedly made his way towards them with a smiling familiarity once he saw Yang Qing and the rest make their way over.

“Welcome judge Yang Qing, judge Mao Yunru, inquisitor Yi Jie and esteemed master. Can I guide you to your usual place?” the young servant who seemed to be around 17 years warmly asked.

“Cao Ying still chipper as always. Sure we will go to the usual place, thank you very much. Your presence in this place will be missed. Your rest period from the institute is almost over, right?” Yang Qing asked as he patted the young Cao Ying’s back.

“Yes, it’s almost over. I only have three more days left before I have to head back. If I wasn’t afraid of the threat the instructors made if we were even a second late I wish I could extend my stay here. It was much more relaxing and fun being here unlike the brutal competitive atmosphere at the institute.” Cao Ying couldn’t help but lament as he led Yang Qing and the rest inside the restaurant.

“Hahahaha every student had the same thought you have when it was almost time to go back to the institute after a break. Even me so has Yi Jie over here and the studious Mao Mao here. Though little Cao I’d warn against you being late. Those instructors are of the same ilk as demon Lei Weiyuan. They are very creative in the punishments they dish out. There was once a young cultivator in the prime of his youth who got late because he was being a dutiful son and grandson but those instructors could hear none of it. They sealed his meridians and made him go to classes for a week with no cultivation knowing full well those classes were over ten miles apart with some being on top of hills. I wonder which insensitive person designed those classes so far apart. The cultivator collapsed every single day, had blisters the size of mushrooms, and was added further punishment for being late to those classes. How is someone with no cultivation expected to travel over ten miles in ten minutes or less….” Yang Qing went on rambling as his face flushed red in anger before Yi Jie interrupted him to get a move in before he finally settled down as he made their way in.

Mao Yunru couldn’t help but shake her head as she knew the young cultivator in the story wasn’t late because he was dutiful to his parents and grandparents. That dutiful cultivator had eaten a few dozen questionable crimson boars with a few friends. The boars were suspected to have weird mutations and were being thrown out by a certain restaurant. The young cultivator heard of it and they pooled their money with a few friends and bought all of them despite being warned it might be dangerous to eat them. The young cultivator and his friend of course paid no heed to the owner’s warnings and roasted all of them later that day. They ended up passing out resulting in the young cultivator and his friends being 2 days late. The young cultivator was of course Yang Qing with the other being Feng Xin. Yang Qing had tried to beg his parents to cover for him and they did what any typical parent would do which is to betray their child to their teacher and encourage the teacher to be ruthless with the punishment as possible.

Yang Qing was never late again after his weeklong punishment but his recklessness when it came to eating questionable food still strongly prevailed to this day.

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